1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ejection tray that contains printed recording sheets in an image forming apparatus, to a sheet supply and ejection device for recording sheets in an image forming apparatus, to an image forming apparatus such as a printer, a copying machine, or a facsimile apparatus, and to an information display device that allows viewing of various information displayed on a display. More particularly, the present invention relates to a technique that provides high space efficiency and excellent design and that allows printed recording sheets to be taken out easily.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general image forming apparatuses, for example, printers, copying machines, and facsimile apparatuses, recording sheets, such as cut sheets, contained in a supply tray are sequentially conveyed to a printing unit, such as an ink-jet head, so that printing is performed thereon. After printing, the recording sheets are ejected and stocked in an ejection tray.
Print data used for printing on recording sheets is acquired from an information acquisition unit, such as a personal computer or a digital camera, via various interfaces (RS232C, SCSI, IEEE1394, and USB), and is stored in a memory. Printing is performed on the recording sheets according to the stored print data.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2000-36931 discloses a printer to which a digital camera serving as an information acquisition unit can be detachably connected. This printer includes a connecting base to which a digital camera is connected to acquire print data. Printing is performed on recording sheets according to the print data acquired by the connecting base.
According to the technique disclosed in this publication, images are displayed on a liquid crystal display provided on the back side of the digital camera. When any of the images is selected to be printed, print data on the selected image is transferred to the printer, a cut sheet (recording sheet) is conveyed from a supply tray by supply rollers provided in the printer, and printing is performed thereon by a printing unit. After printing, the supply rollers are reversed to eject and stock the cut sheet in an ejection tray disposed on the supply tray.
However, this publication does not disclose how cut sheets are contained in the lower supply tray. Therefore, it is not clear how to add cut sheets into the supply tray.
Moreover, this publication does not disclose how cut sheets stocked in the upper ejection tray are taken out. Therefore, it is not clear how to take out a desired cut sheet from a stack of printed cut sheets in the ejection tray.
In addition, images to be printed are displayed only on the liquid crystal display of the digital camera, but are not displayed after the digital camera is detached from the printer. For this reason, it is difficult to check an image actually printed by the printer.